Latoya Giles was sitting in line at a Popeyes in South Louisiana’s drive-thru in early March when she saw something peculiar. A rooster crossed in front of her automobile and proceeded to stroll to the restaurant’s front door.
Giles had heard rooster stories from her coworkers at the hospital across the street, where she works as a traveling nurse. But it wasn’t until she saw him that she believed a live rooster had taken up home in the Slidell Popeyes parking lot.
“As I was coming to the drive-thru [window], the rooster walks in front of my car, so I stepped on my break,” Giles told The Dodo. “Then he went to the door, and he just stood there like he was looking in.”
Giles knew that nobody would believe her without proof, so she started snapping photos of the rooster as he stood at the restaurant entrance, waiting for someone to open the door.
As Giles drove out of the Popeyes parking lot, she noticed something else strange — a chicken coop.
The strange rooster showed up at Popeyes in September, right after Hurricane Ida, and refused to go, according to staff. They searched the area for the rooster’s owner, but when no one claimed him, the staff tenderly adopted him and called him Rocco.
Rocco has become a mascot for the branch, with personnel feeding and caring for him on a daily basis, even building him his own coop. Rocco may have picked an unusual family, but he appears to be happy.
Giles described him as “lovely and healthy.” “They’re clearly looking after him.”
Now, every morning on her way to work, Giles is greeted by the sight of Rocco strutting around the parking lot, surveying his domain. And Rocco’s popularity is only growing.
“Business has definitely improved,” Giles said. “Everyone wants to see the chicken.”
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